''The Cheaters'' is a 1930 Australian

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

directed by

Paulette McDonagh Paulette de Vere McDonagh (11 June 1901 – 30 August 1978), was an Australian film director, who often worked in collaboration with her sisters Phyllis and Isabella. In 1933 it was claimed she was one of only five female film directors in the ...

and starring Isabel McDonagh (professionally known as

Marie Lorraine Isabella Mercia McDonagh (3 January 1899 – 5 March 1982), also known as Marie Lorraine, was an Australian actress who often worked in collaboration with her sisters Paulette and Phyllis. Isabella, alongside her two sisters made history by ow ...

). Phyllis McDonagh worked as art director. The McDonagh sisters made a number of self-funded films together in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Originally the film's length was 6000 feet plus, it survives at 6309 feet (94 mins. at 18 frame/s).

Plot summary

An embezzler, Bill Marsh (Arthur Greenaway), works with his daughter Paula (Marie Lorraine), who serves as a bait, robbing wealthy people. Bill also seeks revenge on a businessman, John Travers (John Faulkner), but Paula falls in love with Travers' son Lee (Josef Bambach) and begins to have doubts about her life of crime. Eventually Paula reforms and marries Lee.

Cast

(Isabel McDonagh) as Paula Marsh *Arthur Greenaway as Richard Marsh *

John Faulkner John Philip Faulkner (born 12 April 1954) is an Australian former Labor Party politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1989 to 2015. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Keating, Rudd and Gillard Governments. After his election to ...

as John Travers *

Leal Douglas Leal Douglas (born Lilly Elizabeth Annie Lamb; 25 March 1881 – 3 February 1970) was a British-Australian actress, mainly of the silent film era. Of Scottish and English parents, Douglas emigrated to Australia as a child and began her stag ...

as the LadyAndrew Pike, Ross Cooper, ''Australian film, 1900-1977: a guide to feature film production'' (Australian Film Institute - 1980), p. 201 *Josef Bambach as Lee Travers *Nellie McNiven as Mrs Hugh Nash *Elaine de Chair as Louise Nash *Frank Hawthorne as Keith Manion *

Reg Quartly Reginald Francis Quartly (19 March 1912 – 26 April 1983) was an English born Australian comedian who was well-known to Australian audiences for his work on stage, screen, radio and television over a period of "more than 50 years"."Reg Quartly ...

as Jan

Production

The film was shot as a silent movie in 1929 but had trouble securing a release. The McDonaghs decided to adapt it into a partial talkie and shot some additional scenes in Melbourne in 1930 using an improvised sound-on-disc system. These scenes included a fancy dress party sequence and a romantic scene where Paula sings a song to Lee.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p152 The musician's union temporarily prevented its members from recording music for the film. The McDonaghs responded by hiring non-union labour.

Release

In May 1930 the film was entered in the first Commonwealth Film competition but failed to win a prize. It did not perform well at the box office due in part to the poor quality of its sound recording. The critic from the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' was not enthusiastic about the movie's quality:

The Misses McDonagh's latest film... is not as interesting as their last production, ''The Far Paradise''. For one thing, they have slavishly copied American models. Instead of striving to give their work originality, the Americanisms, "big boy", "dame", and '"gangster", creep into the captions. For ''The Cheaters'' is, through the greater part of its length, a silent film... the use of captions seem strained and artificial... ''The Cheaters'' suffers from a poor, badly-told story. Especially toward the end, absurdities spring up in battalions. The piece of dialogue that brings the picture to a close is an extreme example of bathos... The acting of the cast... is weak, and it goes at too slow a tempo, flying to the other extreme from the fault of jerky rapidity that used to mar local productions. The best feature of the film lies in its settings.

National Film and Sound Archive comments:

Filmed with a careful eye for detail on location in Sydney and at the McDonagh family home, Drummoyne House, the picture shows evidence of the McDonagh sisters' understanding of mood and atmosphere. This is one of Australia's major surviving silents. Completed as a silent in early 1929, the film was redone as a partial talkie because of distribution difficulties, and used sound on disc with some scenes re-shot. The film was redone again with an optical soundtrack on a Standardtone system.''''The Cheaters'' at the National Film and Sound Archive
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Notes

References

External links

*
''The Cheaters''
at Oz Movies
"The Cheaters" (1929) Classic Australian Silent Crime Drama
- three minute clip on Youtube.
NFSA Restores THE CHEATERS (1929): Before and After
-

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

clip on Youtube. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheaters, The 1930 films 1930s English-language films Australian silent feature films 1930s thriller films Australian thriller films Films directed by Paulette McDonagh Australian black-and-white films Silent thriller films